It has been more than four months since visitors have been allowed inside Florida’s long-term care facilities, and for families desperate to see their loved ones, there is no end in sight.

Before the pandemic, Josie Pirozzoli used to visit her mother at The Hawthorne Inn in Winter Haven every day.  She tells us there is nothing more important to 94-year-old Josephine DeLuca than family.

But, since the state’s emergency rule prohibiting visitors was enacted in March, Pirozzoli said she has only been able to see her mother through a window or on the computer.  Pirozzoli said even those visits are brief, and with her mother’s dementia, they're also heartbreaking.

“What I pray for every time I have one of those visits is that she still recognizes me. That’s what I pray for,” Pirozolli shared.  “That when I get to the window she’ll look at me, and I’ll see that smile so that I know she’s recognized me.”

Experts say regular and frequent testing is key to reopening elder care facilities, and now efforts by the state, including bi-weekly testing of staff, have been bolstered by a new federal initiative to provide rapid point-of-care equipment and tests to more than 15,000 nursing homes nationwide.

This week, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services confirmed more than 600 shipments were sent in the first round, with 26 Bay Area facilities set to receive those supplies.

Nineteen of those facilities are in Pinellas County, four are in Hillsborough County and three more are in Polk County. 

As a news conference Thursday, Governor Ron DeSantis addressed the new rollout.

“I think that would be good just generally, but I also think it would help with allowing visitation into some of these facilities, which we’ve not done since the middle of March,” Governor DeSantis said.  “And that’s exerted a tremendous toll emotionally on a lot of people.”

Still, DeSantis stopped short of saying whether the state will be stepping in once the one-time supply of rapid tests from the federal government runs out.

And while he’s indicated he too wants facilities to reopen, DeSantis has yet to go public with any sort of plan that would allow family members back in.

“Currently, the state is providing resources for all long-term care facility staff to be tested every 2 weeks,” spokesperson Jason Mahon told Spectrum Bay News 9. “The state remains committed to using all available resources to protect our most vulnerable communities.”